I recently had a very
interesting discussion with Elonka Dunin about Geocaching and the St. Louis
Game Jam.
Elonka Dunin is Executive
Producer and General Manager of Online Community at Simutronics Corporation,
Chairperson Emerita and a founding member of the International
Game Developers Association's Online Games SIG, co-Director of
the Global
Game Jam, and as of 2012, is on the Board of Directors for the
building of a new National Museum of Cryptology.1 I was unable to record our discussion, which
is unfortunate because we talked for almost an hour! Regardless of the technical difficulties, it
was still an intriguing conversation.
The first topic we spoke about
was geocaching. Geocaching is a game where you use a GPS to hide and seek
containers with other participants in the activity. The main objective is fairly
straightforward. "Find the cache,
find the logbook", said Elonka.
There are thousands of caches in St. Louis area, along with many other
cities across the United States. The
most popular cache in St. Louis is at the museum underneath the Gateway Arch.
One question that I had asked
Elonka was, "Who makes these games?" in which she responded,
"Anyone can place a cache, there are reviewers in each state that do a
basic check to make sure it’s legitimate".
There are two million people geocaching in a minute. It seems to be more popular in the United
States and other higher income countries.
Elonka has been geocaching
since June, 2012. She has also been playing
other location-based games, such as 4 Square.
On June 10, 2012 she found her first three caches: Our
Thousandth Find Celebration; Housewarming
Party; and Shoestrings. Her record is 42 caches in a day.
The other topic that we
discussed was the St. Louis Game Jam.
Elonka has been involved with this event since the first St. Louis Game
Jam. She has attended, organized, and
participated. She is also one of the 7
people on the board of directors for the Global Game Jam and has been on the
board since 2012. She has also been on
the executive committee since 2011. The
first global Game Jam was started in 2009. For more information about the
Global Game Jam, go to GlobalGameJam.org.
"Anyone can attend," said Elonka,
"It is a good way to develop the St. Louis Community." The event is not a competition. It is primarily for networking, prototyping,
and just having fun! Each game jam has a
theme that participants must use as a guideline for the content created. The games created could be video games, card
games, board games, or any game that can be made within the constraints of the
event.
The supplies recommended to
bring to the game jam are dependent on the participant's skill set. For instance, a programmer needs to bring a
computer with a wireless connection and software tools installed. Teamwork is not only allowed, it is
encouraged. "If someone wants to
participate, but does not know any tools, get GameMaker", said
Elonka. I thought this was a good
suggestion, as I started using GameMaker at 15 years of age (When GameMaker was
in beta!).
She also suggested that it is a
bad idea to come up with a huge concept for a game at the event.
I had asked Elonka what the
most exciting thing about the most recent game jam and what the biggest
conflicts of the event were.
"Showing off the game I made, and seeing the other games was the
most exciting." she said, "The biggest conflict was trying to get
people to cover. Resources were tough. We expected 45 people and 75 came to the
door!" The most recent St. Louis
Game Jam was 48 hours long. Some people
slept in the building, some went home, and others come in just for the first
day.
Elonka made a Wherigo cartridge
game, A Totally Reticulous Mushroom Hunt, at the game jam. She used the LUA programming language for the
game. I had asked why she made this type
of game at a game jam, to which she replied, "I already knew I wanted to
do a location-based game." She was
the only programmer on her team, and acted as a mentor for her other team
members. "At the April game jam,
there were more geocachers" she said.
To play Elonka's game, you need
a Wherigo cartridge. Most people use the
iOS Wherigo app, or it's android counterpart Whereyougo. All you have to do is enter the zip code for
Maryland Heights, MO 63043, download it to your device, and then you can
play. A totally Reticulous Mushroom Hunt takes place in Vago Park.
Elonka recommended a few other
location based games as well: Four
Square, Shadow Cities, Google Ingress(Capture the flag combat), and Zombies
Run(Movement-based game).
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